Opinions on MSC dance theme cruises?

MSC offers a lot of theme cruises: poker tournaments, arts and crafts, cooking classes etc. We are at the moment looking at the dance theme cruise MSC offers on quite a few of its transatlantic crossings (Melody 30 Oct, Orchestra 11 Nov, Opera 25 Nov). It says it is for newbies and more experienced dancers.

We always have the "problem" that we are somewhere in between: we are not newbies but not Fred & Ginger either. We love dancing and on many of the cruise lines the flooring or the music is just unsuitable.

Has anybody done one of these cruises in the past or is planning to go on one and can give advice? The cruise itself is super cheap at the moment, but the airfare home from Brazil is going to kill us, so it is going to be a lot of $$$ in the end for us.

Hi UKBayern

I've not been on a dance themed cruised but my last one was a bridge one. A few of he passengers I met seemed to be enjoying it all. many were experienced and the reason they were on the cruise but others decided just to go along as a beginner.

That is 3 different sized ships you are considering. The melody is the oldest and a bit of a minnow and is up for sale at the moment. Opera is about 5 years old and very attractive, medium sized and then you have the newer larger orcestra with a few more facilities onboard.

MSC do really good prices on their TAs. One thing you may wish to consider to avoid the expensive airfare one way, is to book through a UK TA. The price I got on my Brazil TA next week included the flight from Heathrow. All in cruise price for cat 11 balcony cabin and the flight was only £1450 for 16 nights. If I'd bought the BA flight myself, I would have had to pay almost £1,000. This may work out a lot cheaper for you if you do this and then pick up a cheaper flight back to Germany from Heathrow

Amomondo, thank you for your answer. We have quite a few budget airlines in Germany and Swiss offers a good price one way as well, actually around the figures you are quoting or even less. The only thing I was trying to say that the cruise seems very cheap, but it is the airfare that sort of doubles the cost, so we do have to be sure the cruise itself is worth it (yes, all cruises are nice, but this one would be primarily about the dancing).

What we really wanted to know was if the dance theme was any good for people who have an intermediate level. I realised when I started this thread that it was always going to be difficult to find people on this board who actually did a MSC dance cruise.